Spurs star blames complacency

Most of the comments coming out of Spurs right now have been positive and they tend to look forward to next season’s Europa League campaign, along with squad strengthening and another tilt at the top four. However, one member of the squad has been rueing the loss of Champions League football next term and Moussa Dembele blames complacency among the players when they came to face the weaker teams.

“Against the top teams we are good. But against the small teams it’s like, ‘OK, the top teams would have finished these off by now’,” Moussa said.

“We’ve dropped a lot of points against the bottom teams. We have to be aware next year.

“We haven’t had a bad season. We have the points record, that’s something positive. But at the end we are still a bit disappointed.”

It was certainly a good season when it came to battling the better sides and in eight games against the top four, we earned a respectable 11 points. In the past, that figure would have been much worse but we’ve always had a tendency to drop home points to teams such as Wigan, Fulham, Blackpool – the list goes on.

As an inquest, Moussa’s thoughts are spot on but can that record against the lower sides improve next time?

8 COMMENTS

Spot on comment from Dembele… We have dropped vital home points against much poorer teams … But we have also lacked that spark to open up 8/9 man defences which is crazy when you think of our ability in the flanks Bale & Lennon supported by attacking full backs particularly Walker.
Too much trying to go through the middle this season plus our failure to buy a really good quality striker for the run in cost us dearly.
Just 3 points instead of the 1 at home against awful teams like Stoke ( our worst game at home for years) would have done it.
Make the right deals in the transfer market and we are good … Not too much change and move forward one more step
COYS

we can’t open up the defences because we move the ball far too slowly. With Luka in the middle he would dictate the tempo with quick passing moving the ball from one wing to the other, Van deer Vaart was instrumental too, he’d make quick darting runs in behind defences on to through balls.
Dembele for all of his qualities, gliding past defenders, doesn’t really do this job and Huddlestone is far too slow on the ball. He’s a great passer but plays at such a slow tempo that it negates what is best about our play.
Another midfield schemer required or Tom Carroll to step up (and bulk up)

The thing is if we loose Bale to say Madrid we loose twice.Although we get all that money we have lost our best player plus what does that say to anyone we try to buy.I can’t see any big deals just a few out and a few in.The striker will be the tough nut to crack.Bale has been so good this season getting someone to partner him will be tough.Any striker coming in will see how Defoe and Ade have struggled to play along side him.Lukaku for me is one we missed and would suit our play.He is strong ,fast and has showed this season what a player he might become. It took us a long time to find Bale even after we bought him lets hope it does not take as long to find the 3-4 players we now need to make that move next season. Townsend needs to be used in Europe next season with maybe adding Ince or Atsu . We must find better players to replace Parker and Huddlestone .For those who say Tom is a great passer most of his passes are either sideways or backwards passes and he no longer seems to have that shot he once had.We need quick players to keep our game moving which is based on speed.Add cover for Sandro but must be someone who will push him not like Parker who slows everything.Get these players and we will go into next season on par with the top four then its up to the players.
Coys.

Everyone is saying the same basic thing. Dembele is right, and we beed a striker. David Villa is 6-4 with the bookies to join us. That would be such a shot in the arm for the club. Send out a really exciting message and would probably pay for itself in shirt sales and just creating new fans. Bale stays and this happens… It’s the stuff of champions.

We have seen lots of lazy play from a good few players. This needed attention by both AVB & the coaching staff who showed very little signs of being accertive.That needs to rectified in the new season. ( Moyes as an example!)This confirms Dembele’s comments – who is spot on. Townsend & Rose must be considered for the new season if we are to save on expences.
The coaching staff needs to do much more than they have done this season.